Overnight Saturday Israel evacuated 800 White Helmets members and their families from southern Syria in an operation that took them briefly into Israeli territory and then on to Jordan, where they are expected to be resettled in Britain, Canada, and Germany, according to officials in Amman.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Israel’s spearheading the move at the request of the United States and European governments. The dead of night operation comes a week after reports first surfaced that serious discussions were held on the matter during the July 11-12 NATO summit in Brussels.

The IDF official twitter account posted the following statement: “Following an Israeli Government directive and at the request of the United States and additional European countries, the IDF recently completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families.”

The IDF further called the effort “an exceptional humanitarian gesture” and additionally confirmed that the White Helmets were transferred “through Israel”.

US officials including the State Department spokesperson have this summer made it a key talking point to warn of White Helmets being in “imminent danger” throughout Syria and face the threat of assassination especially in the country’s southwest, as pro-government forces have now nearly completed their successful campaign to take back all of Daraa and Quneitra provinces.

The transfer began at around 9:30 pm local time with a large convoy of buses exiting a frontier area on the Golan Heights toward Israel.

According to a Bild report, the convoy reached the Jordanian border at 5 a.m. and had some level of assistance from the United Nations.

The Jerusalem Post notes that though the Jordanian government early on acknowledged it would initially host the displaced group, Israel had to keep its role hidden throughout the transfer.

“Neither the AP report nor the Jordanian government statement mention Israel. This points to the fact that Israel’s role was considered controversial and that the method of the evacuation had to be kept under wraps until it was complete,” according to the Jerusalem Post report.

Meanwhile a number of journalists and analysts asked the obvious million dollar question: “Why evacuation specifically for just this group and its families?” Why not other civilians?”

Seth Frantzman

✔@sfrantzman

First I heard of this, suddenly there are 800 “White Helmets and families” being evacuated from Syria? I find this surprising. 800 people would require dozens of buses, right? And where do they go? Why specifically just this group and its families? Why not other civilians?

Julian Reichelt

✔@jreichelt

BREAKING: Israel evacuates 800 White Helmets and families from Syria. More soon from our reporter on the ground in the Golan, Paul @ronzheimer , at @BILD online.

As we’ve detailed many times before both the West and the group’s leadership have long claimed it’s nothing but a humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) devoted to rescuing Syrians in the midst of war; however, far from being a “neutral” NGO the group has from its conception been funded by Western governments which have simultaneously sought the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while only operating in anti-Assad “rebel” territory, including still in al-Qaeda held Idlib.

With today’s Israeli rescue operation giving greater clarity to the nature of the group fundamentally being a foreign-created and foreign-sponsored entity, a number of mainstream media outlets are now for the first time casually and belatedly referencing this fact.

CBS, for example, writes, “The officials said the White Helmets, who have enjoyed backing from the United States and other Western nations for years, were likely to be targeted by Syrian forces as they retook control of the southwest.”

The group receives funding from a number of governments, including Britain, Germany and the United States, but also solicits individual donations to purchase equipment such as its signature hard hats.

Last year, a Netflix production called “The White Helmets” won an Academy Award for best short documentary.

Early Sunday Britain’s Foreign Office acknowledged in a statement that it and “international partners” had helped execute the planned evacuation. “White Helmets have been the target of attacks and, due to their high profile, we judged that, in these particular circumstances, the volunteers required immediate protection,” reads the statement.

Though it appears the group is now non-existent in Syria’s southwest after evacuation by Israel, they are still operational in other parts of Syria, including in Idlib in Syria’s northwest corner bordering Turkey.

The group has faced a constant barrage of criticism after being caught on film multiple times bearing arms alongside known al-Qaeda terrorists and even assisting in al-Qaeda conducted field executions — this as the group consistently referenced itself as a homegrown “first-responder” organization.

Top Photo | Photograph of part of the convoy of buses stopped near the Syrian border in the overnight evacuation of some 800 White Helmets and their families. Photo | Vaaju

The United States last week accused the DPRK of violating refined petroleum caps imposed as a part of UN nuclear sanctions dating back to 2006, and is therefore submitting a proposal to cut all petroleum product sales to North Korea.

The Trump administration is keen on not only preserving pressure on North Korea over its nuclear arms development, but in increasing that pressure even as DPRK Chairman, Kim Jong-Un, is serially meeting with world leaders in a bid to secure North Korea’s security and potential nuclear disarmament, a major move that could deescalate tensions in the region, end the war with the South, and ease global apprehensions about the North’s nuclear arsenal.

Meanwhile, Russia is proposing to the UNSC sanctions relief in some form due to the North’s expressed commitment to nuclear disarmament in the light of recent developments.

MOSCOW/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia’s envoy to North Korea said on Wednesday it would be logical to raise the question of easing sanctions on North Korea with the United Nations Security Council, as the United States pushes for a halt to refined petroleum exports to Pyongyang.

“The positive change on the Korean peninsula is now obvious,” said the ambassador, Alexander Matsegora, according to the RIA news agency, adding that Russia was ready to help modernize North Korea’s energy system if sanctions were lifted and if Pyongyang can find funding for the modernization.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

China tried late last month to get the Security Council to issue a statement praising the June 12 Singapore meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and expressing its “willingness to adjust the measures on the DPRK in light of the DPRK’s compliance with the resolutions.”

North Korea’s official name is Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

But the United States blocked the statement on June 28 given “ongoing and very sensitive talks between the United States and the DPRK at this time,” diplomats said. The same day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about the importance of sanctions enforcement.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to informally brief U.N. Security Council envoys along with South Korea and Japan on Friday.

Diplomats say they expect Pompeo to stress the need to maintain pressure on North Korea during his briefing on Friday.

In a tweet on Wednesday Trump said he elicited a promise from Russian President Vladimir Putin to help negotiate with North Korea but did not say how. He also said: “There is no rush, the sanctions remain!”

The United States accused North Korea last week of breaching a U.N. sanctions cap on refined petroleum by making illicit transfers between ships at sea and demanded an immediate end to all sales of the fuel.

The United States submitted the complaint to the U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee, which is due to decide by Thursday whether it will tell all U.N. member states to halt all transfers of refined petroleum to Pyongyang.

Such decisions are made by consensus and some diplomats said they expected China or Russia to delay or block the move.

When asked on June 13 about whether sanctions should be loosened, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said: “We should be thinking about steps in that direction because inevitably there is progress on the track that should be reciprocal, that should be a two-way street. The other side should see encouragement to go forward.”’

The proposals of both the United States and Russia are likely to be vetoed by each other, resulting no real changes, but what it displays is the foreign policy positions of both nuclear powers towards the relative position of the DPRK and its rhetorical move towards denuclearization. The US demonstrates that its campaign of increased pressure on the North is necessary to accomplishing the goal of a denuclearized Korean peninsula, while Russia’s philosophy on the matter is to show a mutual willingness to follow through on verbal commitment with a real show of action towards an improved relationship, mirroring on the ground what is happening in politics.

Posted in USA, North KoreaComments Off on While US Seeks to Up the Ante on Pressure on the DPRK, Russia Proposes Easing Sanctions

NOVANEWS

Though Ecuador’s President Moreno campaigned as a progressive leftist in the style of Rafael Correa, his predecessor who had granted Assange asylum, he has shown himself to be eager to return Ecuador to the fold of U.S. and U.K. influence and neoliberal economic policies.

Julian Assange, London’s – and perhaps the world’s – most famous political prisoner and refugee, is in grave danger as the threat of his arrest and subsequent extradition to the United States appears imminent. The U.S. has been preparing espionage and treason charges against Assange, the editor-in-chief of transparency organization WikiLeaks since 2010 and U.S. government officials have called Assange’s arrest a “priority” in recent years.

Last Sunday, the UK newspaper The Times, ran a story claiming that Ecuador, the state that granted Assange political asylum in 2012 and then citizenship earlier this year, was in “high level” talks with the UK government in an effort to “evict” Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, the embassy where Assange has lived for more than six years. Representing the UK in those talks was UK Foreign Minister Alan Duncan, who had called Assange “a miserable little worm” and demanded that he “face justice” earlier this year in March.

Now, however, those talks seem to have bared bitter fruit as the editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, wrote on Thursday that her sources have told her that Assange will be evicted from the embassy “in the next weeks or even days.” Simonyan added, “Never before have I wished that my sources were wrong.”

The urgency and gravity of Assange’s situation are underscored by the upcoming visit of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno to the United Kingdom, set to begin this Saturday and through the 24th when Moreno – who is wheelchair-bound – will attend the Global Disability Summit in London. Though Ecuador has not announced if Moreno will meet with UK government officials, such meetings are likely and Assange will likely be a major topic of any discussions that do take place.

Moreno stated in late May that Assange’s asylum was not under threat as long as he complied with the conditions of his stay and avoided voicing political opinions on Twitter. He stated he would only “take a decision” on whether or not to rescind Assange’s asylum if Assange did not comply with those conditions. However, following recent events, including the visit of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to Ecuadorlast month, Assange’s compliance with those terms no longer seems to be enough to prevent his expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Indeed, it seems that U.S. pressure on Ecuador seems to have been responsible for Moreno’s decision to reconsider his previous position on Assange’s asylum. According to some reports, the U.S. has threatened to block an International Monetary Fund loan to Ecuador over the Assange case. In addition, over the last week, the U.S. has imported a record amount of Ecuadorian oil, leading to speculation that a deal or pay-off may have been made to ensure Moreno’s cooperation with Washington’s long-standing efforts to have Assange arrested and extradited to the United States.

Though Moreno campaigned as a progressive leftist in the style of Rafael Correa, his predecessor who had granted Assange asylum, he has shown himself to be eager to return Ecuador to the fold of U.S. and U.K. influence and neoliberal economic policies. Since his election, Moreno has barred Correa from running for re-election and removed Correa loyalists from his cabinet. He has also begun paving the wayfor the U.S. military to regain its foothold in the country, which was abruptly ended in 2009 when Correa expelled the U.S. military from its base, and has also sought new financing from the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund.

Perhaps ironically, WikiLeaks previously revealed that Moreno was set to realign Ecuador with U.S. imperialism long before he had been hand-picked by Correa as his successor. In 2010, WikiLeaks’ released a 2007 document on Moreno written by the Bush-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador Linda Jewell. In the report, Jewell stated her view that then-Vice President Moreno would be “useful” to Washington:

Moreno welcomed the visit and expressed his admiration for the United States … He said that Ecuador had to get past its cultural inclination to always play the ‘blame game’ with respect to its problems, which so often includes blaming the U.S. for one thing or another … He will be a useful partner and advocate for many of our development assistance programs, and he will likely also be a useful and strategic conduit for political messages that may be difficult to deliver directly to Correa.”

Yet, if Moreno does oversee Assange’s expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy and rescinds his political asylum, it will be his greatest betrayal yet to his political party and to the Ecuadorian people. As MintPress previously noted, the actions of Moreno’s government in the Assange case will have far-reaching implications for the rights of all Ecuadorian citizens as any move to undermine or reject the rights that Assange holds as a citizen of Ecuador undeniably calls into question the country’s commitment to protecting the right to free speech and even the very dignity of all Ecuadorian citizens.

NOVANEWS

“They were hanging me for a long time and electrocuted me. I was screaming from beatings so intense that I could feel our cell shake then I went unconscious.”

Top Photo | The entrance of Aden Central Prison, known as Mansoura, where one wing is run by Yemeni allies of the United Arab Emirates is shown in this May 9, 2017 photo in Aden, Yemen. Hundreds of Yemenis in the hunt for militant have disappeared into a network of secret prisons run by the UAE and Yemeni militias it created across southern Yemen, where former detainees say torture is widespread. Maad El Zikry | AP

SOUTHERN YEMEN — “They come to strip off our clothes not to liberate us. After taking your clothes off, they tie your hands to a steel pole from the right and the left so you are spread open in front of them. Then the sodomizing starts,” a released prisoner from a secret United Arab Emirates prison black-site, who only wanted to be identified as A.F.D. in fear of retaliation, told MintPress. “Please do not mention my name.”

He continued:

All I could think of was Abu Ghraib. But if you compare the [UAE-Saudi-led coalition] secret prisons to Guantanamo Bay detention camp, it’s no exaggeration, you could make the argument that these Saudi-UAE prisons are much worse.”

The 55-year-old civilian from Yemen`s southern province of Aden told MintPress he was abducted from his home and kept in a secret UAE prison for 18 months on charges of raising the flag of Yemen, signifying his support for a unified Yemen and opposition to the UAE’s military occupation of the southern district:

They blindfolded me and drove me to an unknown place, later I knew it was al Mushar military base run by Abu al Yamamah, then they took me to a jail.”

A.F.D. had been moved across the network of secret UAE prisons multiple times where he was interrogated dozens of times. During his interrogations, he was tortured with electricity, sexual violence, beatings, and attack dogs while blindfolded and chained down.

“They were hanging me for a long time and electrocuted me, I was screaming from beatings so intense that I could feel our cell shake, then I went unconscious,” A.F.D. told MintPress.The effects of the shocks are evident on his body. “In one of the torture sessions, four brothers [Sa’id, Abdul, Hakim and Ahmed] from the Manser family in Aden, had been hanged in front of us.”

Hundreds of detainees from Aden, Hadramout provinces and Al Mukha city suffered similar abuses, including sexual violence, in the UAE-run secret prisons across southern Yemen:

Cells are overcrowded, guards are cruel, there is indiscriminate violence. I even saw a young boy being raped. For a long time, he refused to eat because of the appalling shock.”

A photo showing the body of Ahmed Dabeh, a young man from the city of Jaar in Yemen’s Abyan province. Dabeh was killed as a result of the violent torture he endured in a secret UAE prison on September 29, 2017. Traces of torture are visible on his body. Photo | Courtesy Dabeh family

A.F.D. spoke to MintPress with a broken nose and suffering from severe pain running down his spine. He recalled a day when he and his prison mates were sexually abused:

You know, there was an Emirati officer named Hitler. He would chant ‘Do you know who I am? I am Hitler…Hitler!’ when he would walk on our bare bodies after lining us up and forcing us to lie down.”

Red scars on A.F.D.’s hand could be seen at a glance, as he flailed his arms while recalling how he was tortured:

The prisoners screamed and wept. Those who were kidnapped were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled. Hitler has a dog called Shakeira.”

A.F.D.’s story is just one of thousands of Yemeni civilians who had been held without trial and tortured at a UAE-run prison in Yemen’s southern districts.

Investigations confirm a grizzly history of atrocities

An investigation by the Associated Press in 2017 revealed a network of 18 secret prisons set up and run by the United Arab Emirates across southern Yemen. The 2017 investigation found that nearly 2,000 Yemenis had been disappeared into prisons where extreme torture techniques were normally used, including a “grill” in which the victim “is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire.”

Lawyers and families of many of the disappeared victims told MintPress that the number of those kidnapped is actually much higher, estimating that over 2,500 men disappeared inside these secret prisons. Each day that number increases placing an emotional strain on the victims’ families.

In response, local families have been actively organizing weekly vigils to demand information about their children, parents and brothers’ disappearances.

The daughter and brother of Nezal Ba Hwaireth, who was disappeared into a secret UAE prison, raise his photo at a rally demanding his release. Photo | Ba Hwaireth family

“Our life in an endless nightmare where our loved ones have been forcibly disappeared. when we demand to know where our loved ones are held, or if they are even still alive, our requests are met with intimidation.” a 40-years-old brother of Ba Huirith who was forcibly hidden told MintPress.

Families working with local attorneys created a list with the missing names of those disappeared and launched an international legal campaign in hopes to draw attention from Western human rights groups in an attempt to secure their loved one’s release if they are still alive.

Despite the AP findings and campaigns launched by the victims’ families, the UAE denied and continues to deny that it runs any kind of prisons in Yemen.

However, an investigation in January conducted by a UN panel of experts affirmed the findings of the AP investigation that UAE forces were indeed responsible for acts of torture — including “beatings, electrocution, denial of medical treatment, and sexual violence” at secret prisons across southern Yemen. In May, the House of Representatives voted to force a public accounting of the U.S’ role in these torture prisons, allegations having emerged that U.S. officials were involved in the interrogation process at these sites.

According to anonymous defense officials who spoke with the AP:

American forces do participate in interrogations of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies. They said U.S. senior military leaders were aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when U.S. forces were present.”

According to the AP, a former security chief who himself was involved in interrogating detainees to extract confessions from prisoners revealed that rape is used as a way to force detainees to cooperate with the Emiratis, saying “in some cases, they rape the detainee, film him while raping, use it as a way to force him to work for them” as spies against the Yemeni army, brotherhood group, resistance movement of the Houthis.

A 25-year-old former prisoner, who asked to be identified as S.R.A. to protect his identity, corroborated the AP’s account, telling MintPressthat rape was regularly used and threatened against prisoners:

At first I refused to cooperate with them [interrogators], then they filmed me in immoral acts as they raped me. After that they threatened me if I continue to refuse to cooperate, they would publish it on social media.”

The UAE is a major player in the United States’ so-called “War On Terror,” which is widely believed to be the reason Washington has turned a blind eye to much of the UAE’s activity, expansion, and atrocities in southern Yemen.

While Abu Dhabi claims to be active in southern Yemen to assist in the Western fight against al-Qaeda, Yemenis accuse the UAE of acting as a colonizing force in the region seeking to dominate energy sources, commandeer key ports linking it to the international community, and exploit it as a training ground for its military where thousands of UAE troops currently reside.

In fact, in Yemen’s three-year war, UAE forces purportedly fighting on behalf of Yemen’s government have taken over wide swaths of territory, towns, and cities in the south.

On July 10, Ahmed al-Maysari, who served as Interior Minister in the ousted Hadi government, called on the UAE to hand the secret prisons over to Yemen’s government. It was the first time al-Maysari went gone public with the demand.

The fact that the demand was made by an official of the Hadi government — which invited the coalition’s military to intervene in Yemen and became an excuse for U.S. backed Saudi-led coalition’s aggression — shows who makes the decisions in the south of Yemen.

Hadi’s government has nothing left to do aside from overseeing these prisons.

Now, as the flags of the UAE and Saudi Arabia are raised over battlefields and public buildings across Yemen`s south and in Socotra (an island near Somalia’s northeastern coast) with the flags of separatists sometimes appearing beside them, the Hadi government calls the UAE’s action an act of hostility.

Moreover, this comes as the UAE backs southern separatists and calls the shots in large swaths of southern Yemen, including Socotra. In fact, it is not just southern Yemen under the yoke of the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition; indeed the coalition has been expanding its military influence across the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.

Sites not mentioned by the media

While the AP previously confirmed 18 detention sites, including 13 prisons and many military camps, media reports have failed to mention other UAE prison sites located in the west-coast districts of Al Makkah, Khwakha and Bab Al Mandeb — which, according to local sources who spoke with MintPress, are also UAE-Saudi-led coalition run.

In Mokha alone, the UAE has established five secret prisons. One of them located directly in the Mokha port. Hundreds of Mokha residents and southern reluctants — who reject and resist the UAE presence in the south — have been arrested and incarcerated in these prisons. A local source told MintPress that hundreds of Mouza, Hamili, and Dwabab residents have been held in UAE secret prisons.

Abdul Jabbar Muhammad Ahmad al-Quba’i, a 37-year-old farmer from the village of al-Shaba’ located in the district of al-Mukha, was imprisoned on charges of opposing the UAE’s presence in al-Mukha and along Yemen’s western coast. According to sources close to his family, Al-Quba’i was subjected to torture, including being stripped naked and having burning plastic bags drip onto his skin, having cigarettes put out on his body and having his nails pulled off. Photos of al-Quba’i, leaked from the prison and posted on social media, show signs of torture on appeared his face and abdomen. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a fellow prisoner told MintPress:

Detainees were blindfolded, handcuffed and led in groups or individually into a room where the Emiratis were present. I remember one day the UAE officers told us to undress and lie down spreading our legs open wide.”

This photo, taken inside of the Beir Ahmed prison, shows the body of a man identified only as Ghufran from Dar Sad. Ghufran died in the UAE-run secret prison as a result of his torture. Photo provided by A.F.D to MintPress

Of the five prisons where the AP found sexual torture, four are in Aden. One is at the Buriqa military base belonging to the UAE. A second torture site dedicated to sexual violence was located at the house of Shallal Shaye, the Aden security chief closely allied with the UAE; and a third is at a nightclub-turned-prison called Wadah; the fourth is at Beir Ahmed.

Another torture site run by the UAE was discovered at the Al-Rayan prison in Hadhramaut Airport, eastern Yemen. The airport was turned by the coalition forces into a military base and a jail where hundreds of Yemeni civilians are currently imprisoned.

A.F.D. told MintPress:

Our friend Ahmed Allahji died due to torture. … The prisoners screamed and wept. Those who were kidnapped were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled. A.F.D recounted.

Al-Saqqaf died of torture and was thrown out of the prison window of ‘Waddah Hall.’

Abu Ali Awad, an owner of a sponge factory, was killed due to torture. His father and brother are still being forcibly hidden. As a result of this cruel torture, many prisoners died”

During my period in a prison, 32 prison mates were killed due to torture. One day, I saw mercenary guards in Al Mansourah prison when they were putting a body in a plastic bag.”

Although in the last year the Associated Press and others have unmasked the UAE secret prisons in southern Yemen, for A.F.D., as for many released prisoners, exposing the prisons will only cause their return to the torture sites as a repercussion. According to families who spoke with MintPress, speaking with media about the UAE-prisons will land a victim with charges of giving statements to the media and could get them killed. Two families told MintPress that they lost their sons after speaking with local and international media about their experiences at the black sites.

Top Photo | The entrance of Aden Central Prison, known as Mansoura, where one wing is run by Yemeni allies of the United Arab Emirates is shown in this May 9, 2017 photo in Aden, Yemen. Hundreds of Yemenis in the hunt for militant have disappeared into a network of secret prisons run by the UAE and Yemeni militias it created across southern Yemen, where former detainees say torture is widespread. Maad El Zikry | AP

Posted in Saudi Arabia, YemenComments Off on A Prisoner’s Story of Capture, Detention and Torture in a Secret UAE Prison in Yemen

The British news website the Independent is partnering up with a Saudi media firm to launch four news portals in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Urdu.

The Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) already operate publications to promote state propaganda, and have links to the royal family.

The Independentclaims it will stick to its own editorial policy regarding coverage of topics which affect Saudi Arabia including the war on Yemen and arms trade.

“Four new websites will offer the highest-quality, free-thinking, independent news, insight and analysis on global affairs and local events,” the Independent said in a statement.

“These will be published in Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Persian. Each site will feature direct translations of articles from independent.co.uk alongside content from teams of SRMG journalists based in London, Islamabad, Istanbul, and New York.”

The journalism content will be solely produced by SMRG journalists based in the UK, Pakistan, Turkey and the US. The Independent will only be “contributing” by providing translated pieces from their English-language website. According to the Guardian, the new sites will be supported by staff based in Riyadh and Dubai.

The deal has been in the pipeline since last year, when the following news sites were registered: independentarabia.com, independenturdu.com, independentturkish.com and independentpersian.com.

Last year, Saudi entrepreneur Sultan Muhammad Abduljadayel bought a large stake in the ailing British media company.

Posted in Media, Saudi ArabiaComments Off on The Independent Joins Saudi Arabia to Launch Middle East News Sites

NOVANEWS

While Moscow hopes to balance its relationship with Tehran with its ties to Tel Aviv and Washington, premature gloating about the Kremlin abandoning Iran outright — in some “deal” beggared by Netanyahu and Trump, no less — remain mere wishful thinking.

TEHRAN, IRAN – Little of real substance seems to have resulted from the infamous Helsinki meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, with even a joint communiqué from the two heads of state failing to materialize.

Yet much of the talk about a possible “Helsinki pact” discussed between the two leaders has focused on potential trade-offs affecting the proxy conflicts being waged across the Middle East and Russia’s borders.

Reports alleging a supposed “grand bargain” between the White House and the Kremlin have circulated since Monday. The deal would see the two cooperate to protect Israel’s security by preventing Iran and its Shia allies from establishing a permanent presence on the border of Israeli-occupied territories, or even throughout the whole of post-civil war Syria. According to this theory, Russia would also pressure Tehran to curb its missile development programs.

In exchange, Moscow would be given a freer hand in Ukraine while sanctions against Russia would be loosened.

These reports appear to be far more sizzle than steak, to put it gently. Trump and Tel Aviv hardly have the skill to dictate such terms to their counterparts, and Congress is hardly likely to let up in its frenzied push to ensure that Russia-U.S. ties remain at sub-zero temperatures.

Throughout the week, Israeli media and pro-Israeli outlets likeBreitbart have trumpeted the claim that Trump managed to score “a very significant win: namely, an agreement to avoid a war in the Middle East by restraining Iran in Syria.”

Saudi state newspaper Al-Arabiya even featured a column from Heshmat Alavi – a supporter of the Iran-derived, Western-backed cultMujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) – who enthused that Helsinki has left Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “watching in agony as world powers decide Iran’s future,” portending the impending collapse of “Iran’s regime.”

As many observers have noted, even if Moscow was inclined to do Israeli or U.S. bidding, it scarcely has the clout to restrain Iran. This appears to be lost on Donald Trump, who has been eager to score a significant foreign policy victory of some kind. U.S. allies have been more realistic in their outlook. As one European official told HuffPost:

We don’t believe that [the Russians] have so much influence on Iran … Maybe the Americans believe it. It’s easier for them to believe it and say let the Russians do the job. But we are quite doubtful.”

Iran and Russia have had a complicated and tense relationship in the recent past, as illustrated by Moscow’s years-long hesitancy to fulfill contracts signed by Tehran for the S-300 missile defense system.

Incidents like this, accompanied by Russia’s warming ties with Saudi Arabia, have led to lingering fears in Tehran over being back-stabbed by Moscow.

Discussions about potential deals meant to peel Moscow from its relationship with fellow oil giant Tehran and provide an “off-ramp” out of Russia’s “Syrian quagmire” have long been in vogue in Washington, dating back to the Obama era.

Yet, as analyst Shoaib Bahman wrote on Monday for Iranian website Fararu:

The US, Israel, Saudi Arabia … have employed diverse tactics to create a schism between Tehran and Moscow to advance their own interests in Syria. Proposals by Americans, channeled to Russians via Israel, implies a tradeoff: In return for pushing Iranians out of Syria, Russians will see sanctions imposed on them after annexation of Crimea revoked, Bashar Assad will remain in power … . Russians are well aware of Iran’s strategic influence in the region, and Tehran will not leave Syria under pressure from Moscow. Kremlin also knows that if it squeezes Tehran, it will eventually see a significant portion of its influence in the Middle East lost.”

Russia Reassures Tehran

Reports of the “grand bargain” began to emerge following the Helsinki summit. In an interview with Fox News, Trump was scarce on detail but bubbled over with his belief that he and Putin “came to a lot of good conclusions, a really good conclusion for Israel – something very strong.”

During a press conference, Trump said:

President Putin also is helping Israel. And we both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu, and they would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel.”

He also stressed the need to counter Iran’s “terror” in the Middle East, and particularly Syria, stating that Tehran can’t “benefit from our successful campaign against ISIS.”

During the press conference, Putin himself spoke of the Syrian army campaign to retake Deraa in Syria’s southwest, adding that he and his counterpart agreed to cooperate to secure the adjacent border with Israeli-occupied territories and restore a peaceful status quo in accordance with the 1974 disengagement of forces deal that paused the conflict between Syria and Israel.

Israeli occupation forces seized the strategic 500-square-mile Golan Heights from Syria in its expansionist war of 1967 prior to outright annexing it.

In the past several months, Israel has lobbied hard for Russia to force Iran-aligned groups fighting alongside Syrian forces against Israeli-backed extremist groups to withdraw from the southwestern border region abutting the Golan by tens of kilometers – or even to abandon Syria’s territory altogether.

Iranian senior officials have, for their part, stressed that they would “immediately leave if Iraqi and Syrian governments want it, not because of Israel and America’s pressure.”

Judging by statements from relevant Russian officials, Moscow intends to demand an end to Iran’s overall presence in Syria.

On Thursday, Russia’s presidential envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, briefed Iranian officials in Tehran on the Helsinki summit and assured them that cooperation would continue, commenting:

There has been no pause in the determination and will of the Russian government in the continuation of mutual cooperation to fight terrorism, and this path will continue until the establishment of complete stability and security in Syria.”

The envoy’s message is consistent with comments by Russia’s ambassador to Tehran, Levan Dzhagaryan, who told Russian daily Kommersant on Wednesday:

“First of all, I would like to remind you that the Iranian military presence in Syria is legitimate. The Iranians are there, as well as the Russian military, at the invitation of the legitimate government of the Syrian Arab Republic and are participating in the operation to destroy terrorists.

… Iran is not a country that you can put pressure on.”

While Moscow is clearly hoping to balance its relationship with Tehran with ties to its enemies in Tel Aviv and Washington, premature gloating about the Kremlin abandoning Iran outright — in some “deal” beggared by Netanyahu and amateur statesman Trump, no less — remain mere wishful thinking.

Posted in USA, Iran, RussiaComments Off on No, Putin Didn’t Agree to Play Lackey Against Iran to Appease Trump & Netanyahu

NOVANEWS

by Ruslan Ostashko

The myth of the” Soviet occupation” began to show cracks at the moment when Euro-integration has depopulated Latvia by half. And it’s not even ethnic Russians who are eager to destroy the myth, but Latvians.

Recent debates among Latvians on the Facebook were set off by Inara Ballade’s post in which she blames the Latvian “patriots” for brainwashing the population.

“It’s disgusting to read this fictional and strained nonsense of the nationalistic maniacs. I was born in the LSSR in 1960. I have never felt any occupation. My parents weren’t members of any party (Communist). I got free education in Latvian, was fluent in Russian and English. I graduated from the Conservatory of Musical Arts for free.

We had a happy childhood, free education, ecologically clean food. We shouldn’t say that our life in the USSR was in vain and unfit for the motherland.”

In addition, this Latvian woman rejecting beliefs in the “Soviet occupation,” reminded his compatriots that they, in fact, are stupid to live in debt.

“You all are poor as a church mouse. While blaming the “occupation,” you have destroyed all the manufacturing and production, you created unemployment, driving out the third of population into voluntary exile. Russian ruble, among other things, was more stable, and ten kopeks could buy you a lot of things. You cannot say the same about centimes”.

I would like to say that IT finally got them. And it is not only about some ordinary woman, but also about more or less sane Latvian politicians.

In February of this year, the former head of the Communist party of the LSSR Alfred Rubiks, who not only successfully fit into the market, but even served as a member of the European Parliament, recalled how much was done under “occupation.”

“In those days, we built thousands apartments a year, which people received for free. Yes, people would have to wait for those apartments, and they were not as chic as modern, but very few can afford these luxury apartments today, anyway. Those who stole from us were engaged in speculation, which is now proudly called business. In Soviet times, people were coming to Latvia to live here and work, and now hundreds of thousands have left the country. At the end of the 80’s Latvia had almost 2.7 million inhabitants, now less than half remains. With this we are approaching centenary of Latvia.”

With what Riga is approaching the centenary of Latvia the European Commission knows perfectly well. Here is the forecast made three years ago, it is still relevant now. Adjustments can be safely made in the direction of deterioration.

“LTV.LV: Troubling statistics published by the Euro Commission shows that by 2060 in Latvia 1/3 of population will be people of 65 and older. Our country in at the top as an actively dying EU member. According to the Euro Commission the population will be reduced by 500.000 people by 2050.”

If Brussels aware of poor Latvian affairs, why don’t they take action? The answer is obvious: Latvia was originally intended to be “eaten.” As other “young democracies” like Bulgaria that is dying out even more rapidly.

Therefore, the EU closes its eyes on all these marches of SS Legionnaires in Riga and other tricks of local nationalistic howling about the “Soviet occupation.” Let them amuse themselves, because 50 years from now Latvia will cease to exist.

NOVANEWS

CJ Hopkins

This is completely rational and not at all hysterical or strange.

So it appears America and democracy have miraculously survived the dreaded Trump-Putin summit … or Trump’s meeting with his Russian handler, as the neoliberal ruling classes and their mouthpieces in the corporate media would dearly like us all to believe. NATO has not been summarily dissolved. Poland has not been invaded by Russia. The offices of The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC have not been stormed by squads of jackbooted Trumpian Gestapo. The Destabilization of the Middle East, the Privatization of Virtually Everything, the Conversion of the Planet into One Big Shopping Mall, and other global capitalist projects are all going forward uninterrupted. Apart from Trump making a narcissistic, word-salad-babbling jackass of himself, which he does on a more or less daily basis, nothing particularly apocalyptic happened.

And so, once again, Western liberals, and others obsessed with Donald Trump, having been teased into a painfully tumescent paroxysm of anticipation of some unimaginably horrible event that would finally lead to Trump’s impeachment (or his removal from office by other means) were left standing around with their hysteria in their hands. It has become a sadistic ritual at this point … like a twisted, pseudo-Tantric exercise where the media get liberals all lathered up over whatever fresh horror Trump has just perpetrated (or some non-story story they have invented out of whole cloth), build the tension for several days, until liberals are moaning and begging for impeachment, or a full-blown CIA-sponsored coup, then pull out abruptly and leave the poor bastards writhing in agony until the next time … which is pretty much exactly what just happened.

In the days and weeks leading up to the summit, the global capitalist ruling class Resistance deployed every weapon in its mighty arsenal to whip the Western masses up into a frenzy of anti-Putin-Nazi fervor. While continuing to flog the wildly popular baby concentration camp story (because the Hitler stimulus never fails to elicit a Pavlovian response from Americans, regardless of how often or how blatantly you use it), the corporate media began hammering hard on the “Trump is a Russian Agent” hysteria. (Normally, the corporate media alternates between the Hitler hysteria and the Russia hysteria so as not to completely short-circuit the already scrambled brains of Western liberals, but given the imminent threat of a peace deal, they needed to go the whole hog this time and paint this summit as a secret, internationally televised assignation between Hitler and … well, Hitler).

In order to render them even more repugnant in the eyes of Western liberals (as if being two Hitlers wasn’t repugnant enough), The New York Timesproduced this short porno graphically depicting Trump and Putin as insatiably horny homosexual lovers. A fusillade of apocalyptic op-eds followed, the most shamelessly paranoid and hysterical of which was Roger Cohen’s experimental dystopia, in which “The Alliance of Authoritarian and Reactionary States” trick the inherently fascist Europeans into launching a Second Holocaust with a “fake news” story about Moroccan migrants abducting poor little “Tatiana” from a beach resort in Fuengirola.

While faithful New York Times-reading liberals were still struggling to regain control of their sphincters and doubling up on their alprazolam prescriptions in a desperate attempt to banish these visions of the coming butch-gay Putin-Nazi Reich, go-to propagandist, Jonathan Chait, who has obviously been watching way too much Homeland, published this paranoid spec-fic novella (complete with a “Carrie is off her meds” flow chart) about how Trump has probably been “a Russian intelligence asset” since 1987. At the same time, MSNBC’s Malcolm Nance took to Twitter to denounce Glenn Greenwald as a treasonous “agent of Trump and Moscow” for physically traveling to a conference in Russia and speaking with several Russian people. Nance, who usually just makes things up, was actually telling the truth this time. Greenwald really did visit Russia, and was selfied in the company of Edward Snowden, on top of which he’s totally gay, and God knows what kind of Commie orgies go on in the Kremlin dungeon!

And the neoliberal “Resistance” was just getting started. As Trump was arriving at Stansted Airport to begin his “destruction of British diplomacy” (and possibly poison the Queen with more of that Novichok oatmeal that has been plaguing the UK), The Guardian‘s Owen Jones was personally preparing cells of the “London Resistance” for “the biggest demonstration in British history,” or “the biggest weekday protest in British history,” or a very large protest in any event. The London Resistance’s secret weapon was the baby Russian Agent Hitler blimp, which forced Trump and his Nazi goons to retreat to one of his Scottish golf resorts, but not before humiliating America, and horrifying The Washington Post, by failing to grovel before the British monarch. Still, the point is, London was saved. The forces of hatred, bigotry, and Russianness were roundly defeated by the forces of love, and goodness, and democracy, and tolerance, and whatever. If only the French had been willing to deploy a baby Hitler blimp in 1940 … or had been able to unite the corporate media, the intelligence agencies, the capitalist ruling classes, and thousands of virtue-signaling liberals to disapprove of the original Hitler!

But that wasn’t all … oh no, far from it. No, the weeks of white-eyed editorials warning us of the dangers of peace, the neo-McCarthyite smear campaigns, the virtue-signaling Stop Trump protests, all that was just an extended edition of Orwell’s famous Two Minutes Hate, designed to generate mass hysteria and paranoia in the run-up to the summit. By Friday, the Intelligence Community was issuing warnings of imminent Russian “attempts to undermine America” with September 11 scale “cyber attacks!” National Intelligence Director Dan Coats personally told the AssociatedPress that the little “Imminent Russia Attack” lights he has on his desk were all “blinking red.” Apparently, Trump and the Putin-Nazis are preparing “a crippling cyber attack” against “critical US infrastructure,” like “a power outage in New England in January,” or even “a cyber attack on banks” that will erase Americans’ entire life savings but somehow spare all the Russian accounts, or at least another devastating round of division-sowing Facebook ads!

Then, just in time for the corporate media to milk it throughout the weekend, special counsel Robert Mueller, III released a 29-page indictment accusing a bunch of Russian spies of, well, basically, being Russian spies. The indictment alleges that these Russian spies destroyed the campaign of Hillary Clinton, who everyone knows is supposed to be President, by “hacking” the Democratic Party’s servers and stealing and disseminating emails revealing both Clinton and the Democratic Party to be the soulless neoliberal hypocrites most people already knew they were. The indictment of these Russian intelligence officers (and no Americans, nor any other parties who can ever actually be brought to trial, requiring special counsel Mueller to offer evidence to support his allegations) was followed up by a chorus of voices demanding that the summit be cancelled and that Trump slink home in complete disgrace to confess his crimes to a vindicated nation, and then presumably fire his entire administration, resign, and appoint Hillary Clinton President.

Sometime early Sunday morning, after hours of careful deliberation over cheeseburgers and sodas on Air Force One with the Gorilla Channel streaming on his smartphone for ambiance, Trump decided to go ahead with the summit. This left the Resistance no other choice than to turn up the dial on the manufactured hysteria by repeating the words “treason,” “treasonous,” and “traitor” as many times as humanly possible on every news site, television channel, and social media platform in existence, and just generally running around like lunatics shrieking about an “IMMINENT RUSSIAN ATTACK!”

On the morning of the summit, Charles M. Blow, maestro of alliteration and subtlety, in The New York Times (which, we must remember, holds itself to the highest journalistic standards and in no way resembles a rabble-rousing tabloid), published this impassioned piece entitled “Trump, Treasonous Traitor,” accusing the President of “betraying the nation,” and basically demanding that he be tried for treason. “America is under attack,” Blow announces, “and its president absolutely refuses to defend it.”

In the wake of Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit, which Garry Kasparov has called “the darkest hour in the history of the American presidency” (darker than Truman dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!), the neoliberal establishment and the corporate media appear to have gone full Joe McCarthy. Virtually every establishment mouthpiece, former spook, official state clown, from Thomas Friedman to Stephen Colbert, have been braying about “treason” and “traitorousness,” and suggesting that Donald Trump be removed from office by, you know, whatever means necessary. At least David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantichad the balls to openly call for a CIA-orchestrated military coup, because we can’t afford to wait for the legal process to take its course this time, as we are “facing a national security emergency!”

God knows where we go from here. It’s hard to believe the ruling classes can keep teasing liberals, and other Trump-obsessives, over and over and over like this, without eventually impeaching or shooting the guy … but then again, maybe they can. Perhaps they intend to continue conducting this experiment all the way up to 2020, just to see how paranoid and mindlessly conformist they make the majority of the Western public. In any event, if they decide not to impeach him, and then try him for treason, or just kill him, or whatever, the Democrats at least have a new campaign slogan that they can use in 2018 and beyond … “NEXT TIME VOTE FOR WHO WE TELL YOU TO, YOU RUSSIA-LOVING NAZI SCUM!” It kind of has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

Posted in USAComments Off on Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit or: How Liberals Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New McCarthyism

NOVANEWS

An apartheid state: Israel makes it official

[The following article was previously published on the ANSWER Coalitionwebsite.]

On July 19, 2018, the Israeli parliament ratified into law an apartheid system that has long been a reality. “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People,” is the newly approved Basic Law in a country where such laws take the place of the constitution Israel has never had.

The “Nation-State” law had been under consideration for many years, but even many ardent Zionists had been opposed, not because they disagreed with its provisions but because it would remove all doubt worldwide about the apartheid character of the regime. For the same reason, many pro-Israel organizations and leaders in the United States spoke out against the law.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.

Total support from the Trump administration, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, was the green light for many members of the parliament (Knesset) to vote for the bill now. At the same time, the massive military and economic support, and diplomatic protection extended by Washington have made Israeli leaders increasingly dismissive of criticism from other governments.

The vote for the law was 62-55, with most of the opposition – excepting 13 Palestinian Arab members – still motivated by fears of international reaction to openly proclaiming Israel to be a racist state.

Ahmed Tibi, one of the dissenting Palestinians legislators, called it, “the official beginning of fascism and apartheid.”

An openly racist law

Point 1, “Basic Principles” states: “A. The land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established. B. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination. C. The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”

It should be pointed out that the borders of the “land of Israel” are not defined, as they never have been since the formation of the state in 1948. This is not accidental. From the very beginning, the Israeli colonizers considered their original territory to be insufficient and temporary, and have waged several expansionist wars. Today, crossing into the West Bank one encounters no sign of a border.

Not mentioned here, nor anywhere in the law, are the Palestinian people, who comprised 92 percent of the population a century ago, and who were evicted en masse by means of terror in 1948-49.

The “right to exercise national self-determination . . . is unique to the Jewish people,” explicitly denies any national rights to the Palestinians who make up 21 percent of the population inside the 1948 borders, and at least 50 percent of those living today in what was the British colony of Palestine.

One of the aims of making the right of self-determination “unique” to Jewish people is to foreclose such a right for the Palestinians in the case of Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

Not only are national rights denied to Palestinians in the law, but nowhere in the text are to be found the words “equality” or “equal rights.”

As Liberation News reported in early June: “On June 5, the leadership of the Knesset (parliament) voted not to allow even the discussion of a bill calling for equal rights and status for the ‘Arab and Jewish nationalities’ inside the 1948 borders of the Israeli state.

The bill, titled, “State of All Its Citizens,” was introduced by three members of the Balad party, Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi and Jouma Azbarga. Balad is one of the parties representing the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians living inside Israel.

Speaker of the parliament, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, an immigrant to Israel from Ukraine, called the bill “absurd” and explained why the indigenous Palestinian population must not, from his point of view, be accorded equal rights: “We cannot allow a proposal whose goal is to gnaw away at the foundations the State of Israel is built upon to be on the Knesset’s agenda.”

Most of Edelstein’s colleagues were in full agreement. Knesset Legal Adviser Eyad Yinon stated: “As a matter of principle and in its details, it’s hard not to see this proposal as seeking to negate the State of Israel’s existence as a state of the Jewish people.”

The admission that a law calling for equal rights for all would “negate” or “gnaw away at the foundations” of Israel undercut the oft-repeated mantra that Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East.” In fact, racism and exclusivism have always characterized Zionism, the ideological foundation upon which the state of Israel was constructed.

While the Balad bill would have been overwhelmingly defeated had it come to the Knesset floor, that was an eventuality that Israeli political leaders sought to head-off at all costs, given the embarrassing public relations consequences.

Time for renewed solidarity

In another attack on Palestinian rights, Point 3 of the “nation-state” law asserts that “The capital of the state Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”

Point 4 states that Hebrew is the only state language and downgrades Arabic from an official state language to one with “special status,” meaning that it will not have to be available in state institutions.

Point 5 calls for the “In-gathering of the exiles (sic). The state will be open for Jewish immigration.” This is another blatant apartheid provision. The Israeli state continues to illegally deny the right of return to all Palestinian refugees.

Point 7 stipulates: “The state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.” Again, it is important to point out that there are no geographical restrictions placed of such settlements. The settlements will be Jewish-only. They constitute an obvious violation of international law in addition to the fundamental right of Palestinians to their land.

In their towering arrogance, the rulers of Israel have exposed the profoundly racist character of their state and society. There can be no more credible denials. Now is the time for all people who believe in justice to join in solidarity with the heroic and long-suffering Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination and liberation.

NOVANEWS

What seemed like a simple citizen protest over the increase in social security contributions in Nicaragua, culminated last week in a wave of violence that leaves at least a dozen dead and hundreds of establishments destroyed.

Given the level of organization shown, the extent of the damage and the participation of criminal groups, key questions arise: What is the origin of the demonstrations? Who are behind the most violent groups?

The demonstrations took off in the middle of last week as a reaction to a reform of the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS). The measure of the Sandinista Executive planned to increase the contribution of workers from 6.25% to 7%, while employers would go from paying 19% to 22.5%.

The objective of the decision was to correct the INSS deficit and make it sustainable in the medium and long terms.

Groups of students and retirees, who receive their pensions from the same fund, staged the first public displays of discontent, but in a few hours the events led to massive looting and attacks against ambulances, hospitals, clinics, businesses, cars, government institutions and even family homes.

The scenes of the last days contrast with the statistics that show Nicaragua as one of the safest and most peaceful countries in Central America. The Sandinista authorities consider that, beyond a “civic protest”, what Nicaragua is experiencing is a right-wing plan to incite criminals and obtain political revenue through instability and the artificial creation of a scenario of shortages and scarcity of basic products.

Comandante Daniel Ortega said last Sunday that those who broke into the shopping centers were not “poor people” but “those interested in unleashing chaos.”

The Government reversed the reform of social security and was willing to establish a dialogue to find a solution to the INSS deficit.

However, the leaders of the protests assured that they will not stop their actions.”Social security is no longer the issue, but freedom of expression, corruption, and many others,” said the president of the Broad Front for Democracy (FAD), Violeta Granera.

When a “minority wants to impose its will by force,” said Comandante Ortega, “the opposition is no longer healthy and becomes a factor of destabilization.” The president also criticized the local rightwing seeking the support of U.S. politicians with the objective of “financing destabilization plans.” It is striking that the mobilization for the protests of recent days has been carried out through social networks with methods very similar to those of the Non- Conventional War (GNC).

One of the basic principles of the GNC, perfected by Washington to overthrow governments that are not to its liking, is to get society to confront the government with any excuse, strengthen the conflict from abroad and tighten the siege at the diplomatic level.

As part of the destabilizing actions, Washington ordered the departure of the relatives of its diplomats in Managua on Monday and reduced services in its embassy. Likewise, the State Department renewed today the petition to its citizens to “reconsider trips” to Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, the villagers began to organize themselves to defend neighborhoods, businesses, welfare centers and public spaces against the vandalism of violent groups. Likewise, the army was deployed to guarantee the protection of government buildings and facilities vital for citizenship. The climate of peace and coexistence in Nicaragua attracts a growing number of tourists and foreign investors. The Central American country boasts one of the highest economic growth rates in the region, around 5% of the annual Gross Domestic Product.

“The objective of those who are directing these criminal plans is to destroy the image of Nicaragua,” criticized Comandante Ortega. However, he was confident that Nicaraguans will not repeat the mistakes of the past and will choose the path of dialogue instead of that of war.

Posted in NicaraguaComments Off on Who is behind the protests in Nicaragua?